How parents cause children’s friendships to end

A new study reveals why childhood friendships fall apart and is the first to demonstrate that parents are an important source of these breakups. Using data from 1,523 children, researchers examined parenting styles as well as mother and father self-reported depressive symptoms to predict the occurrence and timing of best friendships breaking up from the start to the end of elementary school (grades one to six). Some of the findings were not what they expected.